Monday 17th December 2012 by Amy Davidson

Who are the bookies favourites for Christmas No.1 in 2012?

We count down the tracks vying for top spot

Girls Aloud 'Beautiful 'Cause You Love Me' - 50/1

Emeli Sande 'Clown' - 40/1

The Pogues 'Fairytale of New York' - 40/1

One Direction 'Kiss You' - 40/1

Jimmy Higham & Jon Walmsley 'Isn't She Lovely' - 40/1

Rihanna and Mikky Ekko 'Stay' - 40/1

JLS 'Hold Me Down' - 40/1

Games Maker Choir 'I Wish For You The World' - 14/1

James Arthur 'Impossible' - 7/2

Hillsborough Charity Single 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' - 2/9

Tags: X Factor, Emeli Sande, JLS, Girls Aloud, The Pogues, Rihanna, One Direction

Simon Cowell covets it, the public hijacked it, Spice Girls and The Beatles had it three times each in a row and Whitney Houston had it for the longest amount of time. It can only be the Christmas No.1.

Considered for a long time to be up there with one of the most prestigious accolades to achieve, the Christmas number one has in recent times suffered an image crisis.

Brief spells of novelty songs made an appearance in 1993 and 2000 with Mr Blobby and Bob the Builder taking the spot for Christmas No.1. Perhaps causing more anger though was the recent spell of X Factor domination, with the series' winners taking 4 consecutive Christmas No.1s between 2005-2009. Rage Against The Machine became the faces of a grassroots campaign to oust X Factor from the Christmas spot and in 2009 succeeded, getting 'Killing in the Name' to No.1... Only for X Factor's Matt Cardle to take the spot again the following year.

Last year, Military Wives' rendition of 'Wherever You Are' became Christmas No.1 and seems to have heralded in a new era of the charity single taking the Christmas No.1 spot.

Check out the tracks leading the charge for this year's Christmas No.1...